Behaviour Change

PROPAGANDA FOR CHANGE is a project created by the students of Behaviour Change (ps359) and Professor Thomas Hills at the Psychology Department of the University of Warwick. This work was supported by funding from Warwick's Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning.

Monday, February 18, 2013

That's my secret, Cap: I'm always angry

This advertisement promotes Johnson & Johnson’s flexible
plasters (or, ‘band-aids’) in the United Arab Emirates, and it was later
deployed to other territories.

The core message is that the plasters are flexible and resilient,
evidenced by the use of the Marvel character ‘Hulk’, who transforms into a
giant, green rage-monster when angry. Such a message exploits the ‘Extreme
Situation’ template from Goldenberg, Mazursky, and Solomon’s (1999) taxonomy.
The template states that deliberately over-emphasising a product’s core feature
– in this case, the plasters’ flexibility – draws attention to it, despite the absurdity
of the plaster withstanding a superhero’s physical transformation.

In addition to the Extreme Situation template, the advert utilises a
variation on the ‘High-Status Admirer Altercast’. Although the Hulk is not a
typical hero figure that people aspire to be, he is still a highly popular character
in fictional media, such as comics and films (Genter, 2007). Consequently, his
inclusion adds credibility to the advert. In the scientific literature, high
source popularity effects greater attitude change than low popularity. Wrench
and Booth-Butterfield (2002) demonstrated that hospital patients assisted by a
physician popular with other staff generated greater satisfaction ratings than
participants with a quiet, less popular physician.

ReferencesGenter, R. (2007). “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”: Cold War
Culture and the Birth of Marvel Comics. The Journal of Popular Culture, 40,
953-978.